


The Snowball Fight to End All Snowball Fights

by AsterRoc



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Growing Up, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-13
Updated: 2013-04-14
Packaged: 2017-12-08 09:03:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/759574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsterRoc/pseuds/AsterRoc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Sophie never knows for sure if the Wind was actually there to hear her, and sometimes messages she attempts to send in this manner never get to Jack, but it’s the only way she has of reaching him at all when he isn’t there in the room with her, so she can only wait and hope."</p><p>Teenaged Sophie learns from Jamie, now a freshman at Aldeberg University, that snowball fights are banned in the entire town of Aldeberg, and she wants to know why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. "It's like banning fun!"

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Some Things Last](https://archiveofourown.org/works/640996) by [Scarlett_Leigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlett_Leigh/pseuds/Scarlett_Leigh). 



> The noted inspiration hopefully won't be obvious until the third chapter.

As the bells and synthesizer chords call out from her phone, she rolls her hazel eyes in impatience and irritation. Even so, the blonde teen hovers her hand over the device as Bieber warbles out the first line of the song, not wanting to answer her brother’s call yet, and it isn’t until right after “Jack Frost nipping at your nose” that she slides the green bar to the right and holds it to her ear. 

“Jamie, you know I’m studying for a midterm,” she snaps out almost before she has the phone up to her head. “You had Mrs. Havershaw too, you know how she expects you to remember every last one of those Greek gods _and_ exactly how to spell their—” 

“Soph, you won’t believe what the RAs just told me!” Jamie cuts her off. “Snowball fights are banned in Aldeberg, you can get thrown in jail just for throwing one!” 

This one makes Sophie pause for a moment, torn between irritation that her brother would call her for such a minor thing, and amazement that they could _do_ such a thing. It was… 

“That’s monstrous!” she blurts out. 

“I know,” Jamie rolls on. “It’s like banning _fun_!”

Sophie thinks of Jack, and is about to ask Jamie what Jack would think of the ban, then bites her tongue. Jamie doesn’t believe anymore, and hasn’t for a few years. Sophie has known Jack for her whole life, she cannot remember a time when Jack was not in her life, he’s been not only a Guardian to her, but a mentor and someone to look up to when she was little, and now has grown into a friend and companion as she has grown. 

There is an awkward silence from the other end of the line as Jamie clearly expects Sophie to continue egging him on but she does not. She hears him draw a breath. 

“Don’t tell me: you’re thinking of your imaginary friend, aren’t you?” 

Sophie does not reply. 

“C’mon Soph, aren’t you just a little old for that? I mean, it was a fun game to play when we were kids, ‘Jack Frost’s going to bring us a snow day,’ and all, but look, I’m an adult now, you can’t expect me to go on believing that sort of thing, and you’re almost an adult too!” 

“You are _not_ an adult James Michael Bennett, you are a rude little frosh twerp and I’m not talking to you anymore! I have a test to study for!” Sophie pulls her cellphone from her ear and presses the button on the top to disconnect the call. She wishes her older brother had called on the landline so she could’ve had the satisfaction of slamming the handle down. 

Sophie realizes her hands are shaking and she puts the phone down before she drops it or throws it across the room. If she did break it, she could probably convince North to give her a new one for Christmas, but it was getting harder and harder for him to convince her mother that she had bought the gifts from “Santa”, and she doesn’t want to have to answer any awkward questions about where she got a new phone from. She especially doesn’t want her mom thinking that some _boy_ had bought it for her. Ew. Sophie wasn’t interested in any normal boys, they never lived up to what she thought a guy should be. 

Sophie glances back at her books and realizes her concentration is shot; she’s not going to be able to make any more progress for a while. She puts a sticky note on the textbook page she was just working on, closes the book, and sets it aside. She strides over to her casement window. Pulling her sweater a little tighter, she throws it open and leans out into the autumn air. The sky is a deepening blue as the sun sets, and a light breeze is beginning to stir with the start of the evening. Sophie whispers out into the Wind, “Could you tell Jack I’d like to talk with him? If he has time?” She is always tentative about calling for him, knowing that he is so busy, plus if it isn’t winter she feels bad pulling him away from the southern hemisphere where he is more comfortable. But Jamie’s made her just so _miserable_ she needs something to cheer her up, and even just thinking of Jack never fails to bring a smile to her lips. 

She leans on the windowsill for a while and sighs pensively. Sophie never knows for sure if the Wind was actually there to hear her, and sometimes messages she attempts to send in this manner never get to Jack, but it’s the only way she has of reaching him at all when he isn’t there in the room with her, so she can only wait and hope. After a while her feet get tired, and Sophie decides to get more comfortable. Leaving the windows open enough for Jack to be able to pull them open the rest of the way, she sits in her bed, over the covers, and updates her status on her phone. 

_“OMG my big brother is so annoying. You’d think he’s the younger of us!”_

* * *

The bang of the window blowing shut wakes Sophie. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but now that she is awake, she realizes that her right cheek and hip are hurting. Opening her eyes the perspective seems all wrong – the sheets are right next to her, not under her as she expected. And then she realizes she fell out of bed and slept right through it. Again. Sometimes she suspects Sandy of meddling, but he’s always denied when she asked him. 

She sits up and rubs the sleep out of her eyes, and remembering what woke her Sophie looks back at the now shut window and around the room. No Jack anywhere. She blinks a couple times, checks to make sure that she still believes in Jack (sometimes Sophie worries that she’ll stop believing in him – if Jack’s first believer could forget him, then anyone can), and then looks at the window again. Both sides have been blown shut, and she sees that the latch has even managed to do itself back up. Sophie climbs back into her bed, figuring that’s the Wind’s reply message that Jack is unable to come that night. 

Not bothering to change into PJs, Sophie sets her alarm for earlier than usual the next morning (she does have to finish studying, after all), crawls under the blanket, and hugs Lambsy to her chest as she drifts back off.

* * *

Sophie sleeps through her alarm as usual, waking up when her mother bangs on her door. Irritated with herself, Sophie skips her shower, changes from yesterday’s clothes to today’s, and brings her books down to the kitchen table to study over her cereal. Her mother gives her a disapproving glance but doesn’t say anything about the studying or her still-dry hair. 

She does however say, “I thought I heard Jamie’s ring tone last night.” 

Sophie rolls her eyes dramatically, but just shovels another spoonful into her mouth and tries not to drip milk onto her notes. She could never remember whether Agamemnon was Greek or Roman, but either way, he was a god, right? She decides to make a chant of it to help her remember: Agamemnon, was a Roman, stole Troy’s Helen. It almost rhymes if you say it right. 

“Sophie,” her mother interrupts her mental chant. “What did your brother have to say that upset you so much?” Oh gawd, she must’ve accidentally posted the complaint to her public filter. 

Evading the question, Sophie answers “Jamie told me that snowball fights are outlawed in Aldeberg.” She shovels another spoonful of sugary milky goodness into her mouth, then remembers something. “Hey, you went to Aldeberg State didn’t you? Did they allow snowball fights back then?” 

“Close your mouth when it’s full,” her mother remonstrates. “The ban actually happened while I was a student. Oh, look at the time, you’re going to be late for the bus! Hurry now, I’ll tell you the story when you get home.” 

Sophie barely manages to shovel in another spoonful before she’s shooed out the door and runs down the block to the bus stop. Her mind is whirling as her friends chatter around her. She hears them mention Helen of Troy, and Sophie contributes her chant: Agamemnon, was a Roman, stole Troy’s Helen. Gavin LOLs at her. “Duh no! Aggie was Greek, and he led the army to get her back.” 

She’s gonna bomb the test.

* * *

Sophie’s mom is waiting for her at the bus stop at the end of the day. She doesn’t usually do so, usually she gets home from work just in time to prepare a late dinner, but today the boss let everyone go home early. Before her mother can ask how she did on the test, Sophie cleverly bursts out, “Finish the snowball story!” and wraps her arms around her mother for a hug. Her mother laughs and hugs her right back. She begins as they walk down the street, arm in arm. 

“Let’s see, I got my Associate’s in 2004, and The Snowball Fight to End All Snowball Fights was in 2002.” Sophie could hear the capital letters in the title.

* * *

_Every year on the first snowfall of the winter, there was a giant snowball fight between the students at Aldeberg State College, and the students at Aldeberg University. Well, officially it was just the students, but we usually saw a bunch of profs too. This was my third year in it, so I knew what to expect, or so I thought. What none of us realized was that town and gown relations had been deteriorating and the town police also thought they knew what to expect._

_Hm? “Town and gown” means how the townies and the school relate to each other. And at least as far as these annual snowball fights went, they’d been getting worse. I guess the year before, an ice ball broke a window in someone’s house, and a car was set on fire. This year’s snowball fight started off okay, but then everyone realized how many cops there were and started grumbling about it._

_Talking to my friends later, none of us were really sure how it happened, but next thing we knew people were attacking the cops, throwing glass bottles and rocks at the cops in their riot gear. Come to think of it, why’d they show up in riot gear in the first place?_

_My friends and I threw snowballs at the cops with everyone else at first, but then we heard car alarms go off and when we saw a couch set on fire next to a tree, your father and I decided to leave before things got worse. We weren’t there when the rest happened, but something like 45 kids were arrested and a bunch of cops were injured, and one of the cop cars was flipped. A couple of the students even had to be rushed to the hospital from a reaction to tear gas._

_So yeah, that was that. They banned snowball fights afterwards, and that was The Snowball Fight to End All Snowball Fights._

* * *

Sophie’s mother runs a hand through her hair then takes a sip of water. Sophie sits thoughtfully for a while. That didn’t really sound like the fun she expected from a snowball fight, certainly not one of Jack’s. Hopefully he’ll come by soon and she can ask him about it. He was sure to know something about a yearly snowball fight tradition. And Jack wouldn’t censor things for Sophie, she could tell that her mother had left out exactly what was in those bottles they were throwing. Jack always treated Sophie like an equal. 

The clink of her mother’s glass of water returning to the table brings Sophie’s attention back, and she quickly gets up from the table to try and run back to her room. “Thanks for the story Mom, now I have to—”

“Not so fast there misses, how did you do on the exam?” Sophie hangs her head.

* * *

Well, the good news about being grounded is that if she’s confined to her bedroom, Jack doesn’t have to look too hard to find her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sophie uses [Justin Bieber's cover of "A Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5TO1hqh4KY) as Jamie's ringtone. In my headcannon Sophie was actually Jack’s first believer – she figured out that he existed while at the Warren since the other Guardians were all talking to him, and that’s why he was able to carry her home. She was too young to really remember it though, so she too thinks Jamie was the first, thus the ringtone. 
> 
> I’m picturing Aldeberg University (where Jamie now attends) as a small elite private liberal arts college, and Aldeberg State College (where Ms. Bennett used to attend) as a public school which grants both bachelor’s and associate’s degrees. Ms. Bennett attended part-time, and so took a number of years to complete her associate’s. To me Burgess is located in Pennsylvania (USA), and I have created Aldeberg as a small college town also located in PA - like many locations in PA the town name is a corrupted form of a town in England (Aldeburgh).


	2. Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The roly-poly golden man gestures with his arms and symbols form above his head. A clock with the hour hand spinning counterclockwise a whole day. A small figure of Sophie herself opening a book and then falling asleep atop it. A dream bubble forms above the mini-Sophie but remains empty. The clock reappears and the hands spin forward, returning to the current time."
> 
> Sophie asks Sandy for a dream.

Sophie leans out her dormer window, again, and sighs pensively to herself, again. That makes two nights in a row, waiting for Jack Frost to come. She didn’t whisper into the Wind this time; as soon as she’d opened the window the Wind had ruffled her hair, and Sophie knew she had not forgotten. Something about the way the breeze caressed her cheek made Sophie feel like it was an apology, meaning that he wasn’t coming tonight either, but she couldn’t stop hoping. She knows sometimes it’s painful for Jack to return to the Bennett house, now that his First Believer no longer believes, but she holds out hope that with her brother away at college it would become easier for Jack to visit. And she had hoped he’d do so tonight. 

So much hope, Bunny would be proud. Sophie twists her lips upwards and blows her bangs out of her eyes, screwing around her left eyeball to try to see them. She doesn’t know why she let her mother convince her into cutting them short. Long, Sophie could always tuck them behind her ears, but short they poke her in the eyes. Sophie sighs, yet again, crosses her arms on the windowsill, and leans her head on her arms. She hums a little Owl City to herself to pass the time while she waits. 

After a long while she is rewarded for her patience. Not with Jack himself, but something almost as good: golden flows of dreamsand. She sticks her head out the window to watch them, noticing that none are headed towards her own window. And that is because Sandy himself is on his way: he rides a horse decked out like a Roman legionary and prances up to her window. Reaching it, he bows from the saddle and Sophie curtseys back with a big grin. 

“It’s good to see you Sandy! What are you doing here?” she asks. Sandy dismounts from his horse, which rears and then dissolves into another stream of sand, going off to find someone to enchant for the evening. “C’mon in,” she gestures him in as she sits at her study desk and swivels her chair around to face him as Sandy nods and floats into her room. 

The roly-poly golden man gestures with his arms and symbols form above his head. A clock with the hour hand spinning counterclockwise a whole day. A small figure of Sophie herself opening a book and then falling asleep atop it. A dream bubble forms above the mini-Sophie but remains empty. The clock reappears and the hands spin forward, returning to the current time. 

“Yeah, that’s true,” Sophie replies. “I think I was just too worried about that test to dream last night. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shut you out.” She smiles at Sandy, who smiles back at her, waving his hands to indicate that it’s no problem at all. 

The mini-Sophie appears above Sandy’s head again, this time in her bed, with a new empty dream bubble above her own head. Then a question mark forms and Sandy’s expressive face mirrors his question. 

Sophie runs a hand through her hair, leaning back in her swivel chair. “I don’t know… I mean, I know how you’d rather give good dreams or happy dreams, but…” 

Sandy cocks his head to the side, then frowns as a golden figure of Pitch appears.

“No no!” Sophie hastens to reassure him, waving her hands for emphasis and leaning forward so suddenly her chair almost slides out from under her. She hastily grabs it and settles back down. “No, I don’t mean that Pitch was here, or even that I’d _want_ nightmares. I mean… I just mean that sometimes I could use a little help figuring things out, and I thought maybe…” She sighs and turns away, not making eye contact with Sandy anymore. 

A small gentle hand falls on Sophie’s shoulder and she looks up into his soft round face. Sandy’s brows draw down and his lips twist slightly in a look of concern and puzzlement more eloquent than words or even his sand symbols could express. Sophie realizes she’s been sighing a lot, and stops herself halfway through the latest one. “You must have better things to do with your time than listen to a teenager complain about her problems?” she asks hopefully. Sophie’s not entirely sure if she’s hopeful that he’ll stay and listen, or hopeful that he’ll go off and let her keep her frustrations to herself. 

Sandy shrugs and gestures out the window, where Sophie can see that the sand continues on its merry way even without his direction. 

She looks back at the Sandman. “You sure?” 

He nods. 

“Okay then,” and she tells him about the conversation with Jamie last night. Each time she mentions her brother’s name she can see Sandy wince. All the Guardians react when reminded of their former believers. For North it was usually a resigned shrug. Bunny tended to look deflated. Sandy winced. Tooth took it best, because she knew that as children aged they tended to value dental hygiene more. And Jack…

A question mark appeared above Sandy’s head once more, and Sophie realized she’d trailed off her story while thinking about Jack. When Jack was reminded of Jamie, Cupcake, and the others who no longer believed, he would just close up completely, his face turning into a wall as he let blankness fill his eyes. 

“Jamie just got me so upset when he started teasing me about Jack.” Sandy winces at Jamie’s name, and physically flinches when Sophie mentions his teasing. “I… I tried to call Jack to talk to him, but he hasn’t come.” 

Sandy nods, and above his head a little scene begins to act out in the dream sand. Mini-Sophie leaning out a window, wavy horizontal lines emanating from her mouth – oh, those probably indicated the Wind. The Wind moves right as mini-Sophie drifts off the left of the tableau, the Wind travels by herself for a while, and then she approaches a mini-Jack. Mini-Jack’s face draws down into an exaggerated frown and he raises his staff as if to do something with it, when a mini-Sandy taps him on the shoulder. Mini-Jack leaves, stage left, and mini-Sandy follows the Wind back off stage right. 

Sophie deflates. “So he’s not coming.” 

Sandy flashes another picture of Jack’s frown, and then of Jamie. 

She snorts. “Well, at least it’s not me he’s upset at. I guess.” She looks back up at Sandy. “So about that dream… Do you have enough to work with? To help me figure things out?” 

Sandy nods decisively, and Sophie crawls into her bed and under the sheets. She picks up Lambsy and for a moment holds him out in front of her in both hands to look at him. He’s a round red stuffed lamb doll, around 4 inches across. Sometimes it seems a little silly for her to hold on to such a childish thing, but then again _some_ people think believing in the Guardians is childish and she doesn’t let that stop her. Sophie tucks Lambsy under the blanket next to her and looks back up at Sandy. 

“I’m ready,” she says, a little grimly. Sandy’s hands are cupped together, nestling something between them, and Sophie cranes her neck to see what he’s got. He opens his hands and out flutters a bright golden butterfly. Sophie grins and watches it weave and bob around the room until it finally comes to a gentle rest upon her nose, and her eyes flutter closed in sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the conversations with Sandy weren’t too oblique. My intent was to communicate that Sophie has no problem at all understanding him as if she were talking with another English speaker, and to give the reader the gist of what he was saying without spelling it out too much in Sophie’s replies. 
> 
> I know this one's shorter than the last, but I was stuck on where to go with the dream for now. Some highlights of what's upcoming (in the next chapter or ones after): Sophie's dream where she starts to figure some things out; Jack finally does come to visit and recounts his version of The Snowball Fight to End All Snowball Fights. (Good thing too, I was beginning to think I might need to change the name of this fic!)
> 
> Sorry for the delay on Ch 3, the dream sequence is kicking my @$$. I've got the first half of it written out, and I know where I want it to go in the end, but I don't have the connection yet between them.

**Author's Note:**

> Time-wise, I picture this set in the present day with the RotG film set some 10-15 years ago. In the film, Sophie is 2-3 years old while Jamie is more like 8-10, making an age difference of 5-8 years. Here I depict Jamie as 18 years old, and Sophie as closer in age, more like 16. 
> 
> When I first thought about writing this, I knew I wanted to do a story of a college town that banned snowball fights, Jack’s reaction to that, and possibly his involvement in the cause. Originally I was going to have the story told from Jamie’s POV after he went off to college, but then I thought about how all the Guardians are guys and how most of fandom says Jamie is Jack’s first believer, and decided it was time to give Sophie the spotlight. From there it grew into a story about teen Sophie and I’m not sure where it’s going next. I do plan to eventually write a next installment with Jack actually in it, but it may take a while before I get there - I think it'll be around Chapter 4.


End file.
